Taking Action!

Taking Action is a lecture series dedicated to sharing the latest scientific research and inspiring community conversation about ways to promote healthy body, mind and spirit.

Upcoming Talks

This event is FREE; however, registration is required.

WELL-BEING IS A SKILL

December 9, 2014
Macky Auditorium
University of Colorado Boulder

Well-being is a skill
Richard J. Davidson
Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Scientific evidence suggests that we can change our brains by cultivating habits of mind that will improve well-being, including happiness, resilience, compassion and emotional balance. Each of these characteristics can be shaped and modified within our brain by experience and training, as shown by the ground-breaking research at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, UW-Madison. In this talk, Dr. Richard Davidson will share how using mental training to cultivate well-being can have a positive impact on happiness, creativity and productivity in the work place and at home.

• Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder; College of Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder; Office of the Senior Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health and Wellness; and CU Bolder Outreach Award to Dr. Dimidjian from the Division of Outreach and Engagement, University of Colorado Boulder
• Naropa University

Richard J. Davidson
Biographical Information
Richard J. Davidson is the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, and Founder and Chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Psychology and has been at Wisconsin since 1984. He has published more than 275 articles, many chapters and reviews and edited 13 books. He has been a member of the Mind and Life Institute's Board of Directors since 1991. He is also the author of the forthcoming book (with Sharon Begley) The Emotional Life of Your Brain to be published by Penguin in March of 2012.

He is the recipient of numerous awards for his research including a National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Award, a MERIT Award from NIMH, an Established Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD), a Distinguished Investigator Award from NARSAD, the William James Fellow Award from the American Psychological Society, and the Hilldale Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was the Founding Co-Editor of the new American Psychological Association journal EMOTION and is Past-President of the Society for Research in Psychopathology and of the Society for Psychophysiological Research. He was also the year 2000 recipient of the most distinguished award for science given by the American Psychological Association - the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.

In 2003 Davidson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2004 he was elected to the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. In 2006, he was awarded the first Mani Bhaumik Award by UCLA for advancing the understanding of the brain and conscious mind in healing. Also in 2006, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, and in 2007, Madison Magazine named him Person of the Year. In 2008, he founded the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, a research center dedicated to the study of positive qualities, such as kindness and compassion. In 2011, he was given the Paul D. MacLean Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research in Psychosomatic Medicine. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig from 2011-2017 and as Chair of the Psychology section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 2011-2013.

This event is FREE; however, registration is required.
To register, visit: www.regonline.com/wellbeingisaskill

Monday, July 28, 6-8 PM
CU Boulder Wolf Law Building, Rm 204 (Map)
Free and Open to the public

Join a community conversation with Dr. Allison Harvey, Professor of Psychology at University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Monique LeBourgeois and Dr. Kenneth Wright Jr., from CU Boulder's Department of Integrative Physiology, to learn about healthy sleep across the life cycle.

Learn about the latest scientific research as Dr. LeBourgeois discusses sleep during early development, including infants, toddlers and adolescents, Dr. Wright discusses sleep during adulthood and aging, and Dr. Harvey discusses strategies for cultivating and sustaining healthy sleep, as well as when and where to get help when needed to support healthy sleep.

Following the lectures, we will hear from experts in our community working on cultivating healthy sleep.

Dr. Allison Harvey, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, an international expert on the treatment of sleep problems, will be delivering a daylong continuing education workshop for clinicians in which she will teach how to effectively treat sleep problems using an empirically supported and transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral approach.

Learning how to treat effectively sleep problems is important for practicing clinicians given that sleep disturbance is so common. Patients may present for treatment of sleep disturbance as their sole problem or as a comorbid problem with another medical or psychiatric condition. Persistent sleeping difficulties are associated with functional impairment, mood regulation and problem solving difficulties, increased work absenteeism, more health problems and heighten the risk of developing future comorbid health and psychiatric conditions.

In this workshop, clinicians will learn about the major sleep disturbances, how to present an effective rationale for treating sleep problems, how to conduct a case conceptualization within a transdiagnostic framework, and how to use the nuts and bolts of CBT for sleep problems. Clinicians will leave the workshop with practical skills that they can apply with their patients to effectively treat sleep problems.

The afternoon also will include time for case consultation on particularly challenging sleep problems. Please email crest@colorado.edu if you would like to share in advance details about a case for Dr. Harvey's expert consultation.

Please join us for this innovative training opportunity to enhance your clinical practice!

Registration is required:
$135 for professionals
$95 for students, email for discount code

Keep an eye on this page for future Taking Action! lectures, addressing topics such as sleep, mindfulness meditation, and more!

December 2014 - Cultivating a healthy mind through the practice of meditation

For more information about this event or the Taking Action! lecture series, call (303) 492-7378 or email crest@colorado.edu.

Past Events

Helping Girls and Women Develop Healthy Body Image: A Community Conversation
Thursday, April 17, 6-8 PM
CU Boulder Wolf Law Building, Rm 206 (Map)
Free and Open to the public

This free lecture will feature Dr. Carolyn Becker, Professor of Psychology at Trinity University and a fellow of the Academy of Eating Disorders. Dr. Becker is nationally renowned for her leadership in developing and disseminating healthy body image and eating disorder prevention.

"Think about all of the women and girls in your life...and think about how much time and energy and emotion [they] spend disliking their bodies... Image what we could do with all of that time, energy, emotion, and money if we were to have them be happy with their bodies." ~Dr. Carolyn Becker

Join us to learn the latest psychological research about helping girls and women embrace a healthy body image and reduce body dissatisfaction. Learn ways to get free from an excessive focus on physical appearance and celebrate one's capacities and agency in the world. Following brief opening comments from Melody Fairchild, elite athlete and coach to many girls and women, Dr. Becker will discuss over a decade of research on developing and disseminating proven strategies to prevent eating disorders and develop healthy body image.

After Dr. Becker's presentation, join us for a panel discussion including our own community experts and your questions and comments. Our panel includes counselors from Boulder Valley School District, the Eating Recovery Center in Denver, La Luna Center in Boulder, and CU faculty. If you have community resources for supporting girls and women, please also bring them to our resource table where we will be sharing materials with one another.

Body image concerns plague many girls and women, and some girls and women will struggle with full threshold or sub-threshold eating disorders. The Body Project, a cognitive dissonance-based prevention, is a body image improvement program that has been found to reduce onset of eating disorders in high school and college aged females.

This workshop will introduce practicing clinicians to the dissonance approach, review the empirical support and existing research, and provide experiential training in delivering core components of The Body Project. Participants will learn brief and practical interventions that can be adapted to a variety of clinical formats to help girls and women develop healthy body image. Please join us for this innovative training opportunity to enhance your clinical practice!

BUENO Center for Multicultural EducationCenter for Community-Engaged Learning and Research (CU Engage)CU DialoguesINVST Community StudiesNational Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST)National Education Policy Center (NEPC)Partners in Education (PIE)Puksta Scholars Program

American Indian Law ClinicByron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional LawEnergy & Environmental Security (CEES), Center forGetches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and EnvironmentJuvenile Law Clinic

Music, College of

American Music Research CenterCU Concerts OfficeEntrepreneurship Center for Music